BHOPAL : The sit-in protest organised by the District Congress Committee in the city on Monday on the issue of farmers turned out to be a flop show, with less than 100 party workers, including senior leaders, turning up.
Prior to the protest, the district administration removed the tent and the sound system in front of Jawahar Bhawan at Roshanpura Square to stage the sit-in against the state government on the problems being faced by farmers in the state.
The officials claimed that the DCC didn’t have the permission to organise the protest. The Congress workers, including State Chief Arun Yadav and DCC Chief PC Sharma and other members sat in the corridor of the Jawahar Bhawan for about an hour. Later, the party workers, led by Yadav went to Mantralaya to handover a memorandum addressed to the Governor to the Chief Secretary.
The speakers claimed that the government was behaving in an autocratic manner and that the district administration was acting like its puppet. They claimed that earlier the party workers had requested the district administration to grant permission to organise the protest in front of the collecotorate on October 9, which was denied.
They claimed that the government had become insensitive towards the problems being faced by the farmers of the state.
Yadav said that the condition of the farmers in the state was miserable. He said that a number of farmers have committed suicide but the government has no time to look into their issues.
He said that the 70 per cent of the crops of the farmers have been damaged due to deficient rains and diseases. He demanded that a special package should be sought from the union government and the farmers should be paid compensation at the rate of Rs 30,000 per hectare. He said that the farmers have yet not received the compensation of the crops that were damaged the last year. He demanded that the loan recovery from the farmers should be stopped.
